Samuel Fielden

Samuel Fielden (25 February 1847-7 February 1922) was an English-American Methodist pastor and labor activist who was one of the eight convicted in the 1886 Haymarket affair.

Biography
Samuel Fielden was born in Todmorden, Lancashire, England in 1847, the son of a cotton mill foreman who was involved with the Chartists. He went to work at the mill at the age of eight, and he emigrated to the United States after coming of age, leaving his horrible job. Fielden became a lay Methodist pastor in Chicago, Illinois, and he joined the socialist cause in 1884. One day in 1886, he met with crowds of striking workers at the Haymarket to speak on the alliance between socialism and the working class, and his speech was interrupted by police. In the ensuing "Haymarket affair", someone threw dynamite at the policemen, leading to the police shooting Fielden in the knee and making scores of arrests and injuries. Fielden was sentenced to death, but he was later pardoned in 1893, and he lived on a ranch in Indian Creek, Colorado until his 1922 death.